A few high-profile pastors/authors/leaders in the Church have recently and publicly denied their faith, most notably Josh Harris, who greatly influenced my generation with his books and conferences.  I even met him once and felt like he and his wife could have easily been some of my best friends if geography had allowed.

When I heard he’d left his wife and renounced his faith, I had three reactions in rapid succession:

1. If ever we needed proof that men are under serious spiritual attack in this nation, here it is.  Good men are so needed in this world, godly men even more so.  We need them to be leaders, protectors, advocates for the weak, defenders of right and truth.  Strong, decent men who love God are becoming so rare this single girl is sometimes tempted to believe they’re extinct.  Our society is so mixed up on what a man should be, it actually ridicules good men and exalts ridiculous ones.  And the church is sometimes not far behind.  I honestly believe that men are Satan’s target right now.  We need to pray fervently for the men in our lives and for manhood as a whole in this country.
2. We need to be diligent to guard ourselves and never be so proud that we believe we’re safe from falling hard.  If these men, who presumably were in constant communion with God, studying His Word and often caring for His sheep, can take enough false steps to fall this far out of reality, what makes me think I’ll never stray that far?  Whether you believe that it’s possible to lose salvation or not, anyone can see these men are in a spiritually dangerous place.
3. This is a good reminder that our hope is not in pastors, or denominations, or belief systems, or even the Church at large.  We are not embarrassed that a Christian leader would do this.  Our hope is in God.  God has not changed though these men have.   Nor are we are ashamed that we sat under their teachings or ever believed anything they said.  We believe the gospel, and anything these men preached we tested against Scripture.  We are not ashamed of the gospel.  No mere human can destroy it, Christian or not.  They can’t change what Christ has done.

I am terribly sad for these men and their loved ones.  I cannot imagine having a husband or father turn his back on God.  There’s no worse place in the world to be than not believing in what Christ did on the cross.  I really ought to feel the same weight of sorrow over every unsaved sinner I know.  Maybe it seems worse because we thought these men were saved sinners–they had the truth of it in their mouths, and we thought they had it also in their hearts.

There is always good in whatever God does.  Perhaps this is part of the pruning of His church.  Perhaps there will be faith strengthened as other men (and women) see the pit of despair and take heed not to fall in.

In his Instagram announcement, Josh Harris said “no group has the market cornered on grace.”  He’s right.  No group does.  But God does.  He has the market cornered on everything good: grace, peace, love, salvation…

Christ is the only answer worth having; we must cling to Him.

**There have been a myriad of posts and articles on Harris’ apostasy.  I found this to be the most helpful.

.

Begin with worship.

For the ache that never seems to ease
For the hurt unknown to others
For the unfulfilled longings of decades
For the character flaws that rip through your life
For the you you can’t stand
For the you you want to be
For the relationships complicated and convoluted
For the imperfect longing for perfection
For the pain reaching for tenderness….

Begin with worship.